Literacy Closet Automation

Recently, I was thinking about the literacy closets and our involvement in their automation. Several months ago, we met as a group and got the process started at Cranston-Calvert. How's it going? Jane, I know you had planned work sessions on Saturdays, and have probably been working on it since we visited. Stacey, I know you're also at C.C. Since we planned to use C.C. as the model for future automation, I was wondering:
1. What has been accomplished so far?
2. How many hours/days has it taken to accomplish that?
3. How many library media specialists, reading specialists, teachers, volunteers are involved?
4. How many hours/days/weeks would you estimate remain?
5. What does it take to automate ONE literacy closet? Is it feasible during workdays or only after school and on weekends?
6. What does this mean for the future in automating the other 4 elem. schools? What will happen if/when consolidation of schools begins?
7. What will it take to transfer collections to other schools?

March Into Reading: May the Learning March On

A bit of background for those outside Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth: Yesterday and today, our island participated in "March Into Reading", a celebration of literacy. Friday, many authors and illustrators traversed the island, speaking to students in schools all over Aquidneck Island. The students' enthusiasm for the visitors was palpable (one author told me she felt like a rock star), and the talented professionals shared their love of literacy, through the writing and illustrating processes. Today (Saturday), local families were encouraged to attend the free "March Into Reading" event at Salve Regina University, featuring six of the authors/illustrators who visited schools on Friday. All six writers/artists also had books to sell, and signed books and other items. Three of them gave presentations in a lecture hall as well.

My question: How can we keep this momentum going?

At Sullivan, the reading specialists approached me and asked if we could use Jerry Pallotta's presentation as a launching pad for a school-wide nonfiction unit. Hooray! Using his numerous alphabet books as examples, we'll read to classes and motivate students in each class to create alphabet books on a curriculum-related topic. Of course, we will be collaborating with classroom teachers in this regard. We have yet to determine the format (PowerPoint, paper books, illustrations done during art class?) and might differentiate the format per grade level, or even within classrooms. The books will be shared in some sort of community assembly or forum, also yet to be determined. While we have some work to do before we start the unit next week, we are inspired!

Google Docs

Google Docs looks like a great way to share and edit our written work. This from the google site: "Edit and present with others in real time. Multiple people can view and make changes at the same time. There's an on-screen chat window for spreadsheets, and document revisions show you exactly who changed what, and when. Viewing a presentation together is a breeze, as anyone joined in a presentation can automatically follow along with the presenter."

We could post our docs here and either use the on-screen chat window or do a skype conference call while we work (See my comments under Stacey's post about skype. I did some research. Here's the link about conference calls: http://www.skype.com/allfeatures/conferencecall/).

If we do a skype chat while working on Google Docs, we can bookmark for later use. Not sure if that is a feature on Google Docs. If it is, no need to open two windows.

Google Docs might solve some of the problems we've been having with our current wiki (space limitation, fee after certain storage used, and login problems). Thoughts?